Attorney General Roy Cooper has ordered debt settlement firm World Law Group to stop collecting what his office says are illegal upfront fees.

Cooper filed a lawsuit this week against Swift Rock Financial of Austin, Tex., which also operates as World Law Group, and the company's owner Derin Scott.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. on Thursday approved Cooper's request to halt World Law Group from offering debt settlement services in the state. The company can't enter into contracts with consumers while the case is going forward.

North Carolina will receive more than $350,000 from the drug manufacturer Amgen as part of a settlement over allegations that the company offered kickbacks to pharmacies, Attorney General Roy Cooper's office announced Monday.

The $24.9 million settlement resolves allegations that Amgen provided certain pharmacies with rebates on the kidney drug Aranesp in exchange for a promise that the pharmacies would promote the drug in nursing home programs.

The company hoped to entice medical professionals in the nursing homes to dispense Aranesp instead of competing drugs, according to the attorney general's office.

North Carolina will receive close to $1 million from Toyota as part of a $29 million settlement the car maker has made with 30 states to resolve allegations that it concealed safety issues.

“People expect their cars to get them where they need to go safely, and car makers have a responsibility to be upfront with drivers about safety issues and recalls,” Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a statement announcing the settlement. “This settlement helps ensure that consumers will get better safety information about their cars faster in the future.”

North Carolina will receive $809,766.68 from Toyota and its North American entities. The settlement is the result of a multi-state investigation that began in 2009 after Toyota owners reported that their cars accelerated suddenly and unexpectedly.

Attorney General Roy Cooper announced Tuesday that North Carolina has joined a lawsuit filed by federal authorities and several other states alleging that Standard and Poor's inflating its ratings on some securities in the lead up to the financial crisis.

Cooper filed a lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court asking the court to stop S&P from "claiming objectivity to the public and require the company to change the way it does business."

The allegations against S&P relate to ratings it made on subprime mortgages. The federal and state complaints allege that "S&P’s analyses were in fact influenced by fees paid by its investment bank clients. As a result, the company knowingly inflated credit ratings for high-risk assets packaged and sold by Wall Street banks."

Cooper alleges S&P, as early as 2001, publicly declared its objectivity while privately compromising its ratings to keep the business of investment banks issuing the securities. The lawsuit alleges the misconduct became acute between 2004 and 2007, and continued until 2011.

More than dozen other states filed similar lawsuits Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Justice filed its suit Monday.

A Florida company that robo-signed foreclosure papers will pay North Carolina $4.2 million as part of a $120 million settlement with Attorneys General in 46 states.

The Wake County Superior Court approved the settlement Thursday requiring Lender Processing Services to review foreclosures it authorized between 2008 and 2010 and correct any errors.

N.C. Attorney General said the company authorized foreclosures without proper review and also allowed unauthorized people to sign documents.

It's not clear how many people in North Carolina were affected by the practices of the company or its subsidiaries.

Lender Processing Services, and subsidiaries LPS Default Solutions and DocX, provide support to banks and mortgage lenders. Banks turned to such companies after the real-estate bust of 2008 put thousands of homeowners in default of their mortgages, but the companies churned out a high volume of improperly processed foreclosures.

Lt. Gov. Dan Forest said Saturday that President Barack Obama was wrong to defer deportation for some immigrants who entered the United States illeglly as children, and the state attorney general's office was wrong in issuing its opinion that participants in the deferred-action program are legally eligible to get driver's licenses in North Carolina. (Update: DACA participants demonstrate at DOT building. See 1/23/13 story with reader comments.)

"A person entering the United States illegally should not be afforded the privileges reserved for US citizens," Forest, a Republican, said in an email statement released by his chief of staff, Hal Weatherman. "The President is willfully ignoring the laws on the books and should be Constitutionally challenged on this point by our Congress. While Congress has not acted, we in North Carolina can and should. We are a sovereign state and need to stand up and push back when the Feds encroach on our ability to protect our citizens and enforce our laws. The Attorney General's ruling leaves open the possibility that the DMV can issue licenses to those individuals who came to our country and state illegally. I disagree with this action." ... [MORE]

The state attorney general's office said today that the state Division of Motor Vehicles should resume issuing driver's licenses to young illegal immigrants who are participating in the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which defers deportation for some young adults who arrived in the United States as children. (See Anne Blythe's story.)

The announcement came in a 3-page letter (see copy attached below) from Grayson Kelley, chief deputy attorney general, to Eric Boyette, the acting DMV commissioner, four months after former DMV Commissioner Mike Robertson said DMV would stop issuing licenses to DACA participants, pending a legal opinion from the attorney general (see 1/15/13 story with reader comments and earlier blog post for background and Robertson's Sept. 10 letter).

Documents:

Lawyers for two civil rights groups called on state officials today to reinstate a policy that made driver’s licenses available to young illegal immigrants who are taking part in a federal program that blocks their deportation for two years (see their letter, below).

“They have all the required documents,” said Kate Woomer-Deters, an immigrant rights advocate with the N.C. Justice Center. “They have an employment authorization card showing their legal presence in the country. They are fully eligible for North Carolina driver’s licenses.” (Update: Here's today's full story with reader comments.)

The state Division of Motor Vehicles says it has stopped issuing the licenses, pending a ruling from state Attorney General Roy Cooper on whether an estimated 18,000 to 50,000 young men and women in the state who are eligible for the federal program are also eligible to drive under state law.

President Obama announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in June to prevent the deportation of an estimated 1.8 million undocumented immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children. The DACA program grants two-year work permits for those who immigrated before they turned 16, are not yet older than 30, and have served in the military or are high school graduates or attending college.

Former DMV Commissioner Mike Robertson quietly requested the attorney general’s ruling shortly before he retired in October (see his letter, below).... [MORE]

GlaxoSmtihKline will pay $90 million to North Carolina and 37 other states to settle allegations that it unlawfully promoted its diabetes drug Avandia, state Attorney General Roy Cooper's office announced Thursday.

North Carolina will receive $2,673,740 as part of the settlement. The State Health Plan also recovered $400,000.

Under the settlement, GSK agreed to reform how it markets and promotes diabetes drugs. The company also must post summaries of all observational studies and clinical trials of diabetes products within eight months of the primary completion date.

GSK employs about 4,000 people in Research Triangle Park, which is the London-based company's North American headquarters.

GSK has about about 600 workers in Zebulon, where it makes respiratory treatments Advair and Ventolin, as well as HIV medicines Combivir, Retrovir, Trizivir and Ziagen.

Cooper's office recovered $31.8 million from GSK earlier this year over allegations that the company made false representations about the safety and efficacy of Avandia and other drugs.

The owner of a Cary furniture company has been barred from accepting upfront payments after failing to deliver customer orders as promised, state Attorney General Roy Cooper announced Friday.

Grand Furniture Gallery owner Max Robert Godfrey, Jr. is permanently banned from operating any business that takes advance deposits for furniture under a consent judgment signed by Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway.

Godfrey will owe $100,000 in civil penalties if he violates the order. Cooper filed a lawsuit against Grand Furniture Gallery in September 2011 after 23 consumers filed complaints against the company, saying that they’d paid money but never received their furniture.

Godfrey had previously owned and operated two other furniture companies. One of them, NC Home Furniture, also had problems delivering orders as promised, according to the AG’s office. The office’s Consumer Protection Division was investigating NC Home Furniture when it filed for bankruptcy in December 2006.

“Always check out a company before you make a big purchase, especially if you’re placing your order online,” Cooper said in a statement. “Doing some research first can save you time, money and frustration.”